World map in 1700

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 1700 and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

Meet figures alive in, or close to, 1700 and move from political geography to the people connected to the period.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below provide long-form reading tied closely to the enlightenment period.

1700 – 1721

Great Northern War

Sweden vs Russia vs Denmark-Norway vs Saxony-Poland

Peter the Great's war to transform Russia into a European power — Sweden's Charles XII won stunning victories before losing everything at Poltava.

Key battles and events: Narva (1700); Poltava (1709)

1689 – 1746

Jacobite Risings

Jacobite supporters of the Stuart dynasty vs British Government (Hanoverians)

A series of uprisings to restore the exiled Stuart kings to the British throne. The final rising in 1745 under Bonnie Prince Charlie came close to success before the devastating defeat at Culloden ended Stuart hopes forever.

Key battles and events: Battle of Killiecrankie (1689); Battle of the Boyne (1690)

1687 – 1757

Dzungar–Qing Wars

Qing Dynasty vs Dzungar Khanate

Seven decades of warfare between the Qing Empire and the last great nomadic power in Central Asia. The Qing's final victory in 1757 resulted in the near-complete destruction of the Dzungar people — one of the 18th century's worst atrocities — and brought Xinjiang and Mongolia under Chinese control.

Key battles and events: Battle of Jao Modo (1696); Battle of Oroi-Jalatu (1756)

1684 – 1834

Rozvi Empire Wars

Rozvi Empire vs Portuguese, Mutapa, Ndebele

The Rozvi Empire expelled the Portuguese from the Zimbabwe Plateau and dominated southern Africa until being destroyed by Ndebele invaders during the Mfecane.

Key battles and events: Expulsion of Portuguese from Mashonaland (1690s); Ndebele destruction of Rozvi (1834)

1680 – 1707

Mughal–Maratha Wars

Mughal Empire (Aurangzeb) vs Maratha Empire (Shivaji, Sambhaji)

Mughal emperor Aurangzeb spent the last 25 years of his reign in an exhausting campaign to subjugate the Maratha Confederacy in the Deccan. Though he captured forts and executed Maratha leaders, the guerrilla resistance ultimately drained Mughal resources and hastened the empire's decline.

Key battles and events: Siege of Purandar (1665); Siege of Jinji (1689-1698)

1674 – 1761

Maratha Empire Expansion

Maratha Empire (Shivaji, Peshwas) vs Mughal Empire, Afghan Durrani Empire

Shivaji founded the Maratha Empire through guerrilla warfare against the Mughals. His successors expanded across India, effectively replacing Mughal power, until the catastrophic Third Battle of Panipat against the Afghans shattered Maratha supremacy.

Key battles and events: Battle of Pratapgad (1659); Battle of Bhopal (1738)

1609 – 1701

Beaver Wars (Iroquois Wars)

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) vs Huron-Wendat, Erie, Susquehannock, Algonquin, French

Haudenosaunee, other Indigenous nations, and European allies fought over trade and power; the Great Peace of Montreal followed in 1701.

Key battles and events: Destruction of Huronia (1649); Destruction of Erie nation (1656)

1595 – 1707

Mughal–Deccan Wars

Mughal Empire vs Deccan Sultanates (Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda)

Century-long Mughal campaigns to conquer the Deccan sultanates of southern India, culminating in Aurangzeb's exhausting obsession that drained the empire's strength.

Key battles and events: Siege of Ahmadnagar (1600); Fall of Bijapur (1686)

Poland-Lithuania (modern Ukraine)

Baal Shem Tov

c. 1698 – 1760

Founding of Hasidism, mystical devotion, joyful prayer, elevation of the common Jew

England

Isaac Newton

1643 – 1727

Laws of motion, universal gravitation, calculus, optics, Principia Mathematica

Germany

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 – 1750

Baroque composer, organist, master of counterpoint, creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, the Well-Tempered Clavier, and the St. Matthew Passion

England

John Locke

1632 – 1704

Empiricist philosophy, natural rights theory, founding modern liberalism

France

Louis XIV

1638 – 1715

Absolute monarch, builder of Versailles, longest reign in European history

Russia

Peter the Great

1672 – 1725

Tsar of Russia, founder of St. Petersburg, moderniser, military reformer, Great Northern War victor

Built 1692 · North America

Mission San Xavier del Bac

White Dove of the Desert, a Spanish colonial mission near Tucson, Arizona

Built 1692 · Asia

Taktsang Palphug Monastery

Sacred Buddhist monastery clinging to a cliff face 3,120 m above the Paro Valley in Bhutan

Built 1690 · Asia

Calcutta (Kolkata)

Founded as a British East India Company trading post, grew into the commercial capital of British India and gateway to Bengal's wealth

Built 1675 · Europe

Portuguese Synagogue (Esnoga)

Grand Sephardic synagogue built by Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisition, still lit by candles and in active use

Built 1673 · Asia

Badshahi Mosque

Mughal-era mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, one of the largest and most beautiful in the world

Built 1670 · North America

Charleston

Major colonial port in British North America, center of the rice and indigo trade and one of the busiest slave trading ports in the Americas

Poland-Lithuania (modern Ukraine) · Philosopher

Baal Shem Tov

The Master of the Good Name

The orphaned clay digger who became the most transformative Jewish mystic since the Kabbalists — founding Hasidism through joy, story, and the radical claim that every soul can reach God.

England · Scientist

Isaac Newton

The Last Magician

The life of the man who unlocked the laws of the universe — from a fatherless childhood in Lincolnshire to the presidency of the Royal Society. A first-person ePub told in Newton’s own voice.

Germany · Artist

Johann Sebastian Bach

The Fifth Evangelist

The life of the greatest composer in Western history — organist, cantor, and genius of counterpoint who wrote over a thousand works, fathered twenty children, and died in near-obscurity before the world understood what it had lost.

England · Philosopher

John Locke

The Father of Liberalism

The philosopher who gave the world natural rights, the social contract, and the intellectual blueprint for modern democracy — told in his own words in a first-person ePub.